Seaweed pressing

The works I have produced were initially inspired by ‘scrapbooks’ held at London’s Natural History Museum. These books were made by Victorian ‘lady scientist’. Flower pressing was an acceptable leisure activity for ladies during the Victorian era and seaweed pressing enabled women to ‘study’ natural history within the bounds of the social constraints of their time, it is believed that Queen Victoria made her own seaweed album as a young lady.

I was intrigued by how beautiful these pressings still are now and wondered at the process used to make them. Combine this with my love of beachcombing and paddling and I was hooked!

Identifying the seaweeds has been a challenge for me (as an artist who definitely isn’t a scientist), but it’s also been an unexpected joy to learn about these diverse marine algae.